


All's fair in Literature and the Kitchen (And maybe love, if you're feeling spicy)

by BlueCoin00



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Anyways, I've got an outline but not like the whole thing written out cut me some slack, M/M, Sylvain Jose Gautier Being An Idiot, That I have an outline at all is astounding I might finish this fic thats wild, but no one believes him cause guess what, by that tag i mean, chapter one is just sweet wholesome friendship, hes an idiot, im so glad thats a tag, more characters will be added as they appear - Freeform, since day one, slowburn, that he sees this coming
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 08:00:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20757002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueCoin00/pseuds/BlueCoin00
Summary: Ashe finished his first semester at Garreg Mach with a 4.0 and a tragic craving for his family's cooking. Growing up in a restaurant meant being used to good food. Though he hadn't had his birth parents, and thus their cooking, for... longer than he was comfortable thinking about, that didn't mean his taste buds had taken the block-out-the-past memo.Dedue had finished his second semester at Garreg Mach just fine, but he couldn't put off the English credits any longer. He'd moved to this country long ago, and was perfectly fluent, but he'd seen the literature assignments from students in the past year. Old English was a different monster, and though he was loathe to use any phrase as vulgar as what was typical of Sylvain... it could eat an entire ass.





	All's fair in Literature and the Kitchen (And maybe love, if you're feeling spicy)

Garreg Mach university was infinitely fancier than anything Ashe Ubert had ever seen, even in his time with Lonato. Every building had high ceilings and stained-glass windows, every classroom had fancy projectors, and even the cheaper dorms Ashe had signed up were nice- private rooms and a kitchen for the floor.

The one thing Garreg Mach didn’t have, like any other university Ashe had ever heard of, was good food. Oh, it had cafeterias and restaurants and fast food places scattered all over campus, but there was no soul to it. No spices. The desserts were generic, the meat dry, the rice plain. It was technically different from day to day, but Ashe felt like it was the same meal over and over, and if he had to suffer another semester of it, he was going to scream.

Not literally scream. He wouldn’t want to inconvenience his roommates like that, especially considering their deal about keeping the noise down was what kept the girls Sylvain dates out of the common area, but he’d be tempted.

The food, however much Ashe suffered for lack of it, was not his current problem. His current problem was the door in front of him that he needed to knock on and desperately wanted not to. Ashe had found he struggled treating some of his more affluent classmates like they were of the same social standing. The difference was too large to broach- Ashe had stolen on the streets as a child while they trained to take on family companies. Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd was the highest up of them all in the Blue Lions dorms, and Ashe’s assigned partner for a project in astronomy. How was he supposed to _speak _to him in his own dorm room? Even making eye contact was awkward sometimes, and this project was going to take a solid few hours of work if they wanted to get a decent grade. How would he-

“Ashe! I’m sorry, I was speaking to Byleth and lost track of time- were you waiting long?”

If asked, Ashe didn’t scream at the sudden voice behind him in the supposedly empty hallway. He _didn’t, _not even if to explain why Dimitri had to apologize later.

“D-Dimitri! Oh, _goddess_ you scared me. I haven’t waited long, just- _please _don’t sneak up on me like that.”

Dimitri’s lips quirked upward in some semblance of a smile.

“Understood. I apologize for scaring you, Ashe, it wasn’t my intention. Still, did Dedue not open the door? As far as I know he was here, and he knew you were coming. Had you knocked, he would’ve opened the door.”

“Oh. I…”

“You didn’t knock, am I right? Please Ashe, you needn’t be nervous. This is our second semester here, you must know by now that though our upbringings were not quite the same, there is no real difference between us as people.”

Ashe managed a small smile in return. Dimitri really was far too kind, but-

“Besides, I stocked up on those sugar candies you like this time, and as I’m not particularly fond of them you’ll have to take some off my hands. For conveniences sake.”

His smile dropped and he stared at Dimitri’s subtle grin in shock.

“You- you’re spending _far _too much time with Claude. I can’t take that, Dimitri, it isn’t-“

“It’ll be rude to refuse a gift from a host, wouldn’t it? Just come in, Ashe, please. There’s nothing to be worried about.”

* * *

Several hours later (and a few sugar candies Ashe found he couldn’t refuse), textbooks thrown about Dimitri’s room and pages of notes that didn’t make sense scattered over the floor, there was a lot to be worried about.

“Astronomy was supposed to be the easy one, they said. Makes more sense than chemistry, they said. Perfect gen-ed science class, they said-“

Ashe had to hold back a chuckle. Despite himself, studying with Dimitri really did make the man a little less intimidating. He lost his composure quickly enough once they needed to calculate arcminutes and arcseconds, and that was only multiplication. Converting units was an entirely different story, one they hadn’t gotten to and likely wouldn’t if the progress today was any indication.

“So imagine chemistry. We’ve gotten a lot done today, even if it was harder than we thought it would be. There’s nothing to…”

He trailed off, only now noticing the busy sounds of someone in the kitchen. This floor of the building, the rooms had their own private ones- he never would’ve heard this in his dorm.

Next came the smell, and Ashe wouldn’t hesitate on admitting his shock on _that _subject matter. It was heavenly, really- made his mouth water just at the thought of looking at whatever that was coming from.

“Nothing to what? Have you just remembered…”

Dimitri caught on moments after and chuckled.

“Ah, I forgot not everyone has someone that cooks to share a room with. Dedue wouldn’t allow me to pay for his housing costs unless he could pay me back in one way, and he loves to cook. It seemed a fair trade, though the more dishes he tries to more unsatisfied he becomes with my lack of response.”

Lonato would kill him for it, but Ashe didn’t listen to Dimitri much at all. Enough to catch that Dedue was the cook, and he imagined his eyes widening was enough to give a hint to what he was thinking.

“I’m sorry, could I…?”

“We could use a break anyways, and I’m sure Dedue would appreciate the company. Tuesdays are always incredibly busy for him-“

Lonato would _definitely _kill him for being so rude, but Ashe was out the door pretty much immediately, making a beeline for the kitchen.

Dedue was the tallest man Ashe had ever met, with arms as thick as a history textbook. Perhaps several. It was an appearance that didn’t lend itself entirely to the image in front of him right now, with Dedue in an apron, sweatpants, and a sleeveless shirt, pulling something that smelled suspiciously like pulled pork from the oven and setting the pan on the cold stovetop. The rice cooker hummed on the other end of the counter, and it added just a hint of something softer to the air. What was he doing for all of this to smell so unfairly good? Ashe didn’t cook often since he had to share a kitchen with an entire floor, but Ashe _knew _how to cook and hadn’t coaxed anything this unfairly good out of the crappy oven and gas stove he had to deal with.

Some of that must’ve shown on his face, because Dedue seemed amused. As amused as he could look, for someone that didn’t emote very much. It had been a little intimidating when they first met, but running into Dedue in the greenhouse and watching him tend to the violets had knocked any of that fear out of his head rather quickly. If only Dimitri was as easy to get used to.

“Good evening, Ashe. Will you be staying for dinner?”

And just like that it rushed back. Ashe shook his head frantically, realizing all at once that he’d shown _absolutely _no tact.

“Oh no, no no no- I wouldn’t want to impose. I was just wondering about the recipe. I haven’t- there’s never any good food in the cafeterias, and this just smelled incredible.”

He hadn’t fooled him at all, and he could _tell _he hadn’t, which was arguably worse.

“I’ve made more than necessary anyway. It is no burden. Though if you insist, you may help set the table, and I can give you the recipe when we’ve finished.” 

“You guys have a _table?”_

* * *

Ashe was, Dedue noted, a very skittish person. Not so much that he could be compared to the likes of Bernadetta, but the word fit all the same. He was also noble to a fault, and it took quite a bit of coaxing for him to agree to eat some of what he’d prepared. Normally Dedue would’ve left him to his own devices and not pushed further after his first refusal, but he looked so… well, he didn’t know quite how to describe it, but the idea of letting him go back to his dorm without having eaten tugged at his heartstrings more than Dedue was comfortable with allowing to pass.

Setting the table had give the man a chance to pull himself back together, it seemed, and his nervousness faded entirely when he took his first bite of the food. Was the man aware of how obviously he wore his feelings?

“This is incredible, Dedue! I thought I was a good cook, but this is- how did you learn?”

Dedue shrugged.

“I learned by watching my mother. She had a talent in the kitchen, and I was fortunate enough to pay attention.”

“Could you teach me?”

Dedue paused, stunned, and took a moment to look more closely at Ashe. He seemed genuinely excited at the prospect- and he wasn’t bluffing about it, if the rate at which the food on his plate had disappeared was any indicator.

Ashe seemed to take it another way though, face falling and clearly mentally stepping back from his outburst.

“I mean- you don’t have to, obviously, I wouldn’t want to impose, but I just- I miss eating food like this and if I can learn to make it- maybe a trade? Are there any subjects you’re struggling in?”

He opened his mouth to say no, he was doing fine, thank you very much-

“He’s having a bit of trouble with the…. ENC courses? The literature units, specifically.” Dimitri added casually, clearly having a little more fun with this than the situation should allow. Perhaps it was him enjoying seeing their normally quiet classmate excited about something, but Dedue suspected it was just him delighting in meddling. Claude was contagious, it seemed.

Ashe practically _beamed_ when Dimitri finished speaking.

“I’m an English major! We can exchange knowledge, sort of. You can teach me how you cook, and I can help you with your English classes.”

“There’s no need. I would be happy to show you without such a trade.”

“Please, Dedue? I’d feel terrible if teaching me took up time you use to study for a course that’s proving to be difficult for you if I didn’t help in return, so I could never ask that of you without such an agreement.”

Nevermind that he had, originally, asked without such an agreement. Dimitri was certainly smiling now.

Dedue sighed.

“Very well. We’ll have to exchange numbers so we can figure out some sort of schedule for this, then.”

Ashe’s delighted grin… sort of made up for the discomfort of having agreed to his help.

* * *

Sylvain was used to Ashe returning at odd hours. His roomie kept a pretty strict schedule, but all it took was someone dropping a book nearby or a professor being swamped with work of Ashe to volunteer to help and disappear for a good three hours. So the fact was, Ashe coming in at ten at night wasn’t the weird thing.

The weird thing was how _smiley _he was about it, and Sylvain prided himself on being a master of identifying smiles. Felix did a little smirk when he was feeling particularly smug, Ingrid’s was soft, quick to appear but quick to fade, Dimitri’s took a little coaxing but stayed on for hours at a time, and so far Ashe’s was a bit of a mix of Ingrid’s and Dimitri’s. This smile wasn’t his usual fare.

“Hey, Ashe- you look like Edelgard when she met Byleth. What happened, run into a cute girl on your way home?”

Ashe, for once, did not go bright red at the implication of being caught near a pretty girl. Instead his smile only grew, which was surprisingly sweet but not quite what Sylvain was going for.

“No, not that, I’m not even- oh, it doesn’t matter. I just tried Dedue’s cooking today! It’s so much better than anything they give us here, and he’s even agreed to teach me how he did it! Have you had anything he’s made? I swear, he pointed out the ingredients he used when we were all done eating and I know I’ve used them before, but the way he spiced things was completely different, I think it was a tradition from his home country-“

Sylvain grinned. Ah. Ashe ran into a cute _boy _on his way home.

“Sounds like you two are made for each other, then! Need any tips for flirting with the cook? I hear there’s this really good pickup line about a box of chocolates-“

“_Sylvain!”_

**Author's Note:**

> Ashe pairs well with pretty much anyone so I. Sincerely doubt this is the only fic I'll write for him whoops. Meanwhile Dedue? Absolute angel and god of patience, anyone who wins is heart is #blessed


End file.
